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China on Wednesday said tit-for-tat tariffs will "destroy" trade between the world's top two economies, after Washington fired the next shot in a ballooning trade war, readying fresh levies on $200 billion in Chinese goods.

"The outburst of large-scale mutual levying of tariffs between China and the United States will inevitably destroy Sino-US trade," assistant minister of commerce Li Chenggang told a forum in Beijing.

US policy "actually interferes with the process of economic globalisation" and "damages the world economic order," charged Li.

On Friday, the US imposed 25 per cent tariffs on around $34 billion in Chinese goods, sparking an immediate dollar-for-dollar retaliation from Beijing.

"Companies in both countries will suffer losses. There is no winner in a trade war. Cooperation is the only correct choice between China and the United States. It seems that the US is escalating the scale of this trade friction," said Li, adding, "The negative impact of the trade friction has already appeared."